Survey of 30 U.S. Cities: Nearly 10 Percent Drop in Homicides in 2023
In 2020, amid the disruptions of the pandemic and the social upheaval following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the United States saw the largest increase in its homicide rate in modern history. Now, more than three years after the start of the pandemic, the country is on track to record one of its largest — if not the largest — annual declines in homicides, according to a report released on Thursday.
Even so, violent crime is still considerably higher than just before the pandemic, the benchmark that police chiefs and city leaders are striving to return to, as cities remain awash in guns.
In the new report, the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice examined crime data from 30 U.S. cities — including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Denver — and found that through the first half of the year there were 202 fewer homicides, a drop of more than 9 percent. Still, homicides across those cities are 24 percent higher than in same period of 2019.
“I would call the result heartening,” said Richard Rosenfeld, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis who was the lead author of the report. “Not a cause for celebration. Most cities have not returned to the homicide levels that were prevailing just prior to the height of the pandemic. So we have a ways to go.”
Source: The New York Times
